By Robbie Culver
Britt Lincoln flew in the IAC demo Tuesday and Wednesday. While she has attended EAA AirVenture Oshkosh in the past, this was her first time flying in front of the crowd. “It’s like the ultimate honor to be here, to be invited,” she said. “And, you know, I can’t believe that I just sat in a pilot briefing this morning with Patty Wagstaff, Michael Goulian, and Jeff Boerboon — all these people who I very much respect and admire.
“To be here and among those people, and of course everybody else, all these people that are walking around, we’re all here because we love airplanes,” she said.
In 2023, a woman won the Advanced category of the U.S. National Aerobatic Championships for the first time in 30 years: Britt has taken the aerobatic community by storm. Interviewing Britt involved sitting back and listening. She is a blur of motion and enthusiasm, and it is contagious.
Britt grew up around aviation. She was raised by her grandparents on a Montana ranch where flying was a part of life since her grandfather and great-grandfather were crop dusters. However, it was six years living in Europe, away from the ranch and away from the flying, that helped her realize what she was missing. “I was around airplanes my whole life, and it was something that was always a part of me, but I didn’t recognize how special it was or how much a part of me it really, truly was until I left home,” she said.
Britt earned her private pilot certificate in November 2017 after she returned to the United States. “I began to realize that this is something that was inside of me,” she said. More ratings and certificates followed: her instrument rating in the spring of 2018, followed quickly by her commercial certificate and a multiengine rating.
“I did my seaplane rating that summer as well, because, you know, why not?” she said. Oh, and then there was a commercial seaplane rating. And she did all of this is in a year.
When asked how she got into aerobatics, the answer was a surprise. “I was just riding with a friend on a tug and drove past this hangar and the doors were open, and there were these airplanes in it. I didn’t know anything about aerobatics. And I jumped off the tug and went into the hangar,” Britt said.
“It was a Super Decathlon and a Pitts S-2B that were in the hangar, and the guy in the hangar starts talking about aerobatics and the IAC. It was like he was speaking a foreign language to me,” she said. “I had no idea what any of this meant. He took me up in the Pitts, and by the end of it, we were doing lomcováks and tailslides. Finally, he said we have to go back because we’re going to run out of gas. After we landed he just said, ‘You need to learn how to do this. I’ve never taken anybody for an aerobatic ride the first time that could handle this stuff.’ I started training in a Super Decathlon a couple weeks later, and after about five lessons, I did my first contest.”
At this point Britt mentioned she very competitive with herself. “Every flight is a challenge,” she said, “and it’s a constant strive to be better every time I fly!”
Her competitive nature led her to competing at the U.S. National Aerobatic Championships in 2022. “There were, I think, 28 pilots, give or take a few, there to try to make the team,” she said. “And I came in fourth, which I was obviously stoked about [since the top eight advance]. So I made the team, and I was the first female to make the team in 30 years.”
In 2023 she competed at the World Advanced Aerobatic Championships, finishing seventh. The United States finished third overall.
At the end of the interview, I asked Britt if there was anything else she wanted to say to young ladies getting into aviation. Her answer? “Fly like a girl!”
For more information, check out BrittLincoln.com/about.